NEWS

Prime Minister’s press conference

At today’s press conference, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, presented the key resolutions and decisions adopted at the 22nd regular Government session. 

 

(Foto: Bor Slana/Bobo)

 

Prime Minister Pahor began by communicating the Government decision to convene an extraordinary session concerning the situation at the NLB bank, in respect of which it would demand all clarifications necessary for the adoption of further decisions.  "The main intention of the Government's granting of guarantees to NLB was to enable the operation of companies with development ambitions and not those engaged in ownership consolidation," he added.

  

At today’s session the Government adopted the draft Act Amending the Excise Duty Act. The aim of the new act is to reduce the excise duty burden on fuel oil used mainly for commercial freight vehicles. The draft act will thus directly influence the entire road transport area, in that it will reduce the costs of freight and passenger transport, thus reinforcing the competitiveness of this branch in the European economic area.

 

The ministers in office adopted the Tourism Policy for 2009 with guidelines for 2010. This document lays down basic measures and activities to create conditions for further development of tourism, divided into several areas: tourist destination development policy, human resource development policy, marketing and promotion policy, and other fields. Thus the Government is attempting to increase demand for Slovenia as a tourist destination, to achieve greater visibility of the country and to strengthen economic activity in this area.

 

In addition, the Government adopted an opinion concerning the proposed One-off Cost of Living Support Act. The Government does not support the proposal in its present form, planning instead to pay one-off solidarity assistance to all socially disadvantaged groups within the third package of anti-crisis measures. In the Government's opinion, the rejected proposal of pension support only targets a single group, but not all groups set back by the crisis.  The proposal also fails to observe the financial position of retired persons, thus causing inadmissible differences. This act was to enter into force as late as in 2010, while the solidarity assistance will be paid this autumn.